News Update

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – The Bangor city council met Monday night to discuss an array of items in its first meeting of the new year.

This included establishing a comprehensive plan to navigate homelessness and addressing housing needs.

This comes about two weeks after a homeless encampment on the railroad in Bangor was broken up.

With the issue of homelessness taking center stage, the Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Human Rights proposed the creation of a transitional stabilization site in Bangor where homeless people could congregate in one area.

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – With this brutal cold, members of Bangor’s homeless population are taking shelter in the City’s three overnight warming centers.

“The support from the city and the community has been sensational. We’re getting everything we need to really put together a nice warming center. It’s a good year,” said Zach Spaulding, ministries coordinator, The Union Street Brick Church.

Since opening in mid-November, The Union Street Brick Church has provided shelter to about 130 different people and served up 2,000 hot meals. It’s almost unthinkable that just a few short months ago, funding for Bangor’s largest winter warming center was in doubt.

“It would be very scary. There would be 60 more residents out in the cold. There aren’t very many options, and I’m glad that we got to open this year,” Spaulding said.

PORTLAND, Maine — A warming shelter in Portland is closed for a second night Sunday cafter someone from the shelter said staffing shortages caused a closure last night.

According to the 2025 winter warming plan, the city opens the warming shelter when the low temperature drops below 15 degrees, or there is more than 10 inches of snow accumulation. Last night, low temperatures in Portland dipped into the single digits.

AUGUSTA — Plans to open a homeless shelter on the east side have hit a dead-end, as officials look to instead create rules and regulations on operating homeless shelters inside city limits.

BANGOR — Railroad authorities cleared the homeless encampment in Bangor Monday morning, removing the remaining people and anything left behind.

Monday marked the fourth time in four years that a homeless encampment in Bangor has been swept.

“The railroad has come with both their police staff as well as cleanup crews, and they’re working up and down the railroad,” Bangor City Manager Carollyn Lear said.